Search and Rescue

When the phone rang at my Oregon home that Sunday evening and CDR Pat Wendt said, “Can you Fly?, “I knew something big was up. What Pat was really asking was had I been enjoying a beer with the golf match that I’d been watching on TV.

The article “The Helicopter In Rescue” by Captain Woodrow R. Vennel is a great summary of the evolution of Coast Guard helicopter operations through the

“Lewis had to make what he considered to be one of the most crucial decisions of his life. Peering at the fog below him, he

In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd – a Category 4 storm, with peak winds of 135 mph, struck the East Coast of the United States. Floyd

By Sean M. Cross, CAPT, USCG (retired) “As the basket was lowered a fifth time to pick up the two remaining men, a huge wave

By George Hall  With Permission from Flying Magazine Originally published in Flying Magazine on 1 January 2002   If, as hoary nautical tradition holds, it’s bad

Shared with Permission from the Naval Aviation Foundation    

By Ms. Kalee Thompson Before dawn on March 23, 2008, the Alaska Ranger, a large fishing vessel sank in the Bearing Sea, America’s deadliest waters.

This rescue involved the first high seas deployment of a rescue swimmer and is a tribute to the persistence and professionalism of Coast Guard men and women who perform rescues each and every day.

This article from the Anchorage Daily News is the account of the crash in the words of the Pilot at the controls (Copilot) during the rescue attempt and at the time of the crash.

On March 7, 1967 UF-2G CGNR 1240 apparently met with disaster and after extensive searches was never found. The bodies of 3 of the 6 crew members aboard were never found. Recently, in July 2006, a charter boat stumbled across the wreckage of something unknown at the time. The Association of Underwater Explorers went to the wreckage and photographed the site in 60 feet of water – see the article for information and photos.

A U.S. Coast Guard PBM-5 seaplane CGNR 59012 had the left wing float and five feet of the left wing tip were torn away during a night JATO lift off from rough open ocean waters medivac. Pilots MacDowell and Douglas flew the damaged aircraft back to home base. They made a successful night water landing ending the hazardous rescue mission of April 7 – 8, 1948.

I’ll always remember “Big John” as we TransPac-ed PBM-5G No. 84738 together, worked and flew together, and were off Swatow where No. 84738 crashed and sank. John later told me when he was swimming around in the cold dark Chinese waters and trying to signal the rescue destroyer, that he could hear the other PBM grinding around above the overcast and dropping the parachute flares that lit up the area like daylight. I wonder what the local Chinese thought was going on that night.

The story of the La Conte is based on interviews with 11 Coast Guard helicopter flight crew members involved in the rescue; three members of the ground crew; Coast Guard spokesmen in Juneau, Alaska, and Martinsburg, W.Va.; the surviving crew members of the La Conte; Jesse Evans, who found the remains on Shuyak Island; the two Alaska state troopers who recovered the remains; and two forensics experts at the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage.

As Hurricane Sandy approached land, the HMS Bounty and 16 sailors aboard were in dire need of help. More than 90 miles off the coast of Hatteras, N.C., the three-masted sailing vessel had lost power and was taking on water in an area mariners call the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” for its infamously treacherous seas. With its pumps failing, the Bounty’s crew was forced to abandon ship. Adrift in two liferafts, they were powerless against the raging seas.

On 1 July Scotch 3, an F-105 Thunderchief was hit by anti –aircraft fire. Lt. Col. Jack Modica, the pilot, thought he could stay airborne long enough to reach the Gulf.

The message came from the 54-foot Trudovaja Slava, a large Soviet factory ship on station off the New
England coast. Since the Soviet fishing fleet operated in a world of their own and rarely contacted others, the emergency message was most unusual.

Ocean Express, an unusual ocean going vessel, was, in reality, a movable offshore oil-drilling rig, in the form of a barge nearly 200 feet long and over 100 feet wide. Buildings on the barge’s deck provided offices and accommodation spaces for the 33 crew members working and living aboard. This is the story of its capsize during a storm and the rescue of the crew aboard.

About 10:20 pm on 5 July, 2000, HH-65 CGNR 6539 was heading back to base after monitoring a swamp fire east of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana and heard “Mayday Mayday Mayday – Ocean Crusader – I’m an oil rig – I’m on fire”

This story appeared in “Alaska Magazine” in 1979 and was also featured in the Commandants’ Bulletin a couple of times. Recently a book, “Adak, the rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586” by Andrew Jampoler was published about the P-3 ditching and rescue effort which included CG 1500 out of Kodiak along with a
Russian fishing vessel.

Two days before Christmas 1955, a helicopter rescue took place that changed the direction of Coast Guard aviation occurred on the two days before Christmas 1955. This case firmly bonded the helicopter to the Coast Guard in the public’s mind and laid the groundwork for all future aircraft acquisitions. It took only one helicopter with a hoist and four very brave crewmen to change the future of CG aviation.

It may not be staggering to the average American or even Coast Guard Aviators today, but one must be mindful that this was the first ever major rescue for the helicopters in question and was to later create the climate wherein the Coast Guard became the prime user of helicopters for all types and kinds of rescue missions. Some of the aviators, whose images appear in these photos, went on to become the historic figures in helicopter rescue history and the development of the helicopter for mercy missions that continue day in and day out today.

In the relatively quiet, wee hours of the morning of 14 July 1960, Mr. E.R. Lizada was
on duty at the Manila Radio Station. Over the last hour, he had received several routine
reports from Northwest Airlines Flight 292, a Douglas DC-7 inbound to Manila from
Okinawa and Tokyo. All semblance of routine was shattered for Lizada at 0325 local
time when the following exchange of messages took place between himself and Captain
Dave Rall, pilot of Flight 292.

This narrative recounts the actions of AST1 Willard Milam as an individual, but the rescue, like so many others, displays the elements inherent in all rescues; Coast Guardsmen willing to put their lives on the line to save others. It is a first person account. It manifests the teamwork necessary to accomplish the mission and reveals the often unseen and true reward which is within. There is a uniqueness and bonding amongst Coast Guard aviation crewmembers that is difficult to understand unless you have been there. It transcends.

There is a special relationship between crewmembers which is unique to Coast Guard Aviation. Academically this could be identified as a shared mental model or mindset. In operational language, it is a culture of mutual respect and team mentality resulting in a successful mission in a high risk environment. There are many examples of aircrew competence and courage. I have chosen a few to represent the many.

The Albatross was designed for optimal 4 ft seas, and could land in more severe conditions. With JATO takeoffs could be made in 5- 9 ft. seas. There have been take-offs made without JATO that exceeded the 5 foot figure. With lives at stake there were numerous times when “possible” was substantially re-defined.

On January 9, 1963 the U.S. Coast Guard received the first of 99 Sikorsky S-62’s which were given the designation HH-52A and the name “Seaguard”, a name which never caught on amongst those who flew it.

Late in the afternoon of April 16, 1950, William Strecker and Gus Detrick of Miami, FL made ready Strecker’s 35-foot cabin cruiser, Moonlight, for an evening of fishing. The most important thing Mr. Strecker did was to inform his wife of where they were going, and when they would return.

A U.S. Coast Guard PBY-5A amphibian. In a sister aircraft, number 48429, pilots Bilderback and Natwig landed in rough ocean waters to rescue sixteen survivors of a DC-6 which had crashed off San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Good Friday, April 11, 1952.

There were 11 Coast Guard Aviators that flew with these rescue forces in Vietnam between 1968 and 1972. They were all volunteers – they were all highly praised. The following relates a mission that involved two of these gentlemen and illustrates that if at all possible – No one was left behind.

In 1945, an RCAF Aircraft crashed in northern Labrador. After 2 rescue fixed wing aircraft crashed in trying to rescue the original survivors, the Coast Guard was asked to attempt the rescue by helicopter. This is an annotation of that effort.

This publication is the account of the efforts and successful rescue of survivors from the crash of a Sabena Airlines C-54 in Newfoundland near to Gander. The text is from official reports recently found in the office of the CG Historian, CG Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Demonstrating the quiet courage expected in a service which teaches its members that then “must go out but don’t have to come back”, six Coast Guard airmen had a harrowing experience when they abandoned a huge Hall Flying boat a few seconds before it capsized and later sank in 1,004 feet of water.

After a fire in the engine room stopped the cruise liner Prinsendam dead in the water, the Coast Guard moved into action to rescue all 520 passengers and crew.

On the morning of November 1, 1979, the Burmah Agate, inbound to Galveston Bay with a full load of fuel, collided with the outbound freighter Mimosa just outside the entrance to the Galveston Bay Entrance Channel. The Mimosa struck the Burmah Agate on its starboard side, tearing a hole in the hull , and setting off an explosion that ignited the leaking oil. The tanker foundered, while the freighter remained under way, slowly circling about a dropped anchor.